In the era of the monarch, how the emperor chose the capable and capable among his many sons to be the heir to the throne in the future was a major matter that concerned the rise and fall of the country. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, because the crown prince was appointed early, it triggered a dispute between the princes for the throne. The crown prince was appointed twice and deposed twice. In the end, the crown prince was succeeded by the fourth son of the emperor, Yinzhen. After Yongzheng became the emperor, he learned his father's lesson and no longer made a clear heir. At the same time, he set up a study in the palace. When the prince reached the age of six, he would be sent to the study to study. He would be taught by a minister with excellent knowledge and conduct. All the princes would be trained according to a unified education model, which became a system that was inherited by the later ministers.
The first purpose was to not clarify the heir, so it would not lead to open and secret struggles for the imperial power. Secondly, they could judge the merits and demerits of the princes by their education level. Third, there could be many options when choosing an heir in secret. Furthermore, the princes were highly educated, which was also beneficial to the prosperity of the country.
Classes in the study room started early every day. It was just past five o'clock and the sky was still dark. The prince had to go to the study room to study with a lantern. The same was true for Secret Yin. It was not until dusk in the afternoon that they finished their studies for the day. At noon, the guards brought food over, and the prince and teacher ate at separate tables. Most of the teachers were Han ministers hand-picked by the emperor. They mainly taught Confucian classics and taught according to different ages. The prince, who had just entered the study room to study, first learned to read and recite from the teacher. The teacher wrote a sentence, and the prince followed and read it repeatedly. He memorized it until he could recite it thoroughly. As he grew older and his comprehension increased, he entered the history of books again. The teacher corrected the mistakes and taught the meaning of the history of books.
At the age of twelve, they arranged for Manchu and Mongolian teachers to teach them. At the age of fourteen, they would learn archery, riding, archery, and martial arts. Only when the prince was 16 or 18 years old and had to live separately after marriage did it stop.
As the prince's education was related to the rise and fall of the country, the emperor attached great importance to it. Therefore, the teachers in the study were mostly held by important officials. The teaching discipline was very strict. If the prince was disobedient, he might be punished to stand or even kneel.
On this day, Kangxi patrolled the upper study and saw Wang Jie, the master of the upper study at that time, punishing Yin Mi for not studying hard and kneeling down. He angrily asked the prince to stand up and said,"The one who teaches is the Son of Heaven, and the one who does not teach is the Son of Heaven.」He meant that his son would still be the emperor regardless of whether he studied or not. He blamed Wang Jie for not having the etiquette of a monarch and his subjects. Wang Jie replied,"Yao and Shun taught, while Jie and Zhou did not teach. This is the way to be a teacher!」It meant that although the prince could become an emperor whether he studied or not, those who studied well could become the Holy Lords like Tang Yao and Yu Shun. Those who did not study could become the tyrannical tyrants like Xia Jie and Shang Zhou. Therefore, punishing the prince was doing his best as a teacher. Hearing this, he felt that it made sense and made the prince kneel again.
Kangxi had a lot of imperial grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren, but most of them did not like to study. More than half of them skipped classes for a long time. Over time, the teachers in the study began to slack off. Some teachers even did not come to the study for six consecutive days. Kang Xi was furious when he found out and issued an edict: "The prince and the others are all old and have already learned. There is no need to supervise the daily classes. As for the emperor's grandson, great-grandson, great-great-grandson, etc., they are young and diligent in learning, how can they have a slight interruption?」In the end, more than ten ministers, including famous ministers, were severely punished by the Ministry of Transport. Two Manchu ministers, Asu and Dachun, were dismissed from their posts and each punished with forty boards. They stayed in the upper study to serve and walk, in order to atone for their previous mistakes and observe the future effect.
However, the eighteen sons of Kangxi were not so polite to their teachers. Once, the teacher urged the Eighteenth Prince to study. The Eighteenth Prince, who was extremely annoyed by this, hated the teacher and threatened,"If I become the emperor in the future, I will kill you first.」The teacher was so scared that she cried on the spot. Kangxi's nineteenth son was also a fierce character who gave his teacher a headache. In the book "Qing Bai Lei Banknote", one day he poured a cup of tea and gave it to the teacher, saying: "I am usually naughty and have troubled you. Please drink this cup of tea and accept my apology.」The teacher did not suspect anything. He took the cup and drank it in one gulp. After drinking it, he realized that there was a smell of urine in the tea. Faced with the smug teacher, the teacher could neither scold nor hit him, so he could only cry alone.
At this time, Emperor Kangxi came to patrol and saw the teacher standing at the side crying instead of teaching the prince to read. He was very dissatisfied and asked the reason. The teacher handed the cup to Kang Xi, saying that the elder brother had poured the tea for him and asked the emperor to smell it. Kang Xi knew it was a trick with a sniff. He flew into a rage and immediately punished him. Later on, Kang Xi adopted his childless brother and completely excluded him from the list of heirs. This was also because he was repeatedly reprimanded for his lack of manners.
In the Qing Dynasty, although there were not many " wise kings and holy lords " in the past 200 years, it was an indisputable fact that the princes had received a high degree of education and most of them had a certain degree of cultural accomplishment.
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